Collections of Resources on Education for Sustainability and Green Living

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Education with an Holistic Perspective

Introduction

Much of today's education is based on 19th
century world-views emphasising reductionism, linear thinking and
positivism that make it very difficult for learners to find meaning,
relevance and value in school or life. In schools the result is often poor
attendance, lack of motivation, lack of participation and poor behaviour -
all of which make learning much more difficult.

Education
should be meaningful for all
learners. We need a learner centred education system built on the explicit
assumptions of connectedness, wholeness and being fully human.

These are the attributes called for by the United
Nations, and
adopted by many preventative programs to combat depression,
suicide and substance abuse by young people. They are the same attributes
called for by UNESCO in its report Learning: The Treasure Within,
for education for the 21st century that are critically
important if countries in the Asia-Pacific are to have a meaningful place
in the 21st century with healthy whole citizens.

The
links on the right
outline the need for
a more holistic approach to education built on explicit assumptions of
connectedness, wholeness and being fully human.

http://www.hent.org/why/contents.htm"A more 'soulful' education seeks to open the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit of each student. It would provide opportunities for students to be creative, contemplative, and imaginative. It allows time to tell old and new stories of heroes, ideals and transformation. It encourage students to go deep into themselves, into nature, and into human affairs. It values service to others and the planet.A spiritualised curriculum values physical, mental and spiritual knowledge and skills. It presents knowledge within cultural and temporal contexts, rather than as facts to be memorised or dogma to be followed. It is integrative across all disciplines emphasising inter-relationship and inter-connectedness. It challenges students to find their own place in space and time, and to reach for the highest aspirations of the human spirit."Education with an Holistic Perspective

is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual,
emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. It
actively engages students in the teaching/learning process and encourages personal and
collective responsibility.

is a quest for understanding and meaning. Its aim is
to nurture healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any
new context. By introducing students to a holistic view of the planet, life on Earth, and
the emerging world community, holistic strategies enable students to perceive and
understand the various contexts which shape and give meaning to life.

recognises the innate potential of EVERY student for
intelligent, creative, systemic thinking. This includes so-called
"students-at-risk", most of whom have severe difficulties learning within a
mechanistic reductionistic paradigm which emphasises linear, sequential processes.

recognises that all knowledge is created within a cultural
context and that the "facts" are seldom more than shared points of view.
It encourages the transfer of learning across separate academic
disciplines. Holistic education encourages learners to critically approach the
cultural, moral and political contexts of their lives.

values spiritual literacy (in a non-sectarian sense).
Spirituality is a state of connectedness to all life, honouring diversity in unity. It is
an experience of being, belonging and caring. It is sensitivity and compassion, joy and
hope. It is the harmony between the inner life and the outer life. It is the sense of
wonder and reverence for the mysteries of the universe and a feeling of the purposefulness
of life. It is moving towards the highest aspirations of the human spirit.

The Holistic World View

The New Physics - A Revolution in Physics...

Between the 16th and 18th centuries there was a dramatic shift in
the way people observed and thought about the Universe. This new system of thought was
based on the philosophy of Rene Descartes who promoted a mathematical description of
nature and the use of analytic thought - the Cartesian System. Descartes' vision was to
give a precise and complete account of all natural phenomena with absolute mathematical
certainty. To accomplish this he compared natural phenomena with machines. Descartes even
drew parallels between a sick man and an ill-made clock.Later Isaac Newton synthesised the works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Descartes
into a complete mathematical formulation of Nature - Newtonian Mechanics. Towards the end
of the 19th century scientists believed that eventually all natural phenomena would be
explained by reducing them to the motion and interaction of particles.

This
reductionism led to the expectation that:

PHYSICS would eventually explain CHEMISTRY;

CHEMISTRY would explain BIOLOGY; and

BIOLOGY would explain PSYCHOLOGY.

Love, joy and courage had been reduced to
chemical reactions within the brain.

This view is still generally accepted even though we now know that theapplication of Cartesian reductionism has severe limitations.

According to Paul Davies:

"The dawn of [the 20th] century heralded an explosion of ideas
which shattered the cosy notions of reality that had endured for centuries. Many cherished
beliefs and unquestioned assumptions were swept away. The old world view of a rational and
mechanistic universe, ordered by rigid laws of cause and effect, collapsed into oblivion,
to be replaced by a mystical world of paradox and surrealism."

The universe was no longer seen as a machine,
made up of a multitude of separate parts,
but as a harmonious indivisible whole;
a network of dynamic relationships that even included
the consciousness of the human observer in an essential way.

In atomic physics the sharp Cartesian division between mind and matter, between the
observer and the observed, can no longer be maintained. In spite of this change to a
holistic view within physics most contemporary thought is still based on implicit
reductionistic and mechanistic assumptions of the 19th century (see below).See also Newtonian and Quantum
Thinking

Systems Thinking & Ecology...

According to Fritjof Capra, the Cartesian view of living
organisms as machines, constructed from separate parts, still provides the dominant
conceptual framework in biology. And much of psychology is based not only on the Cartesian
world view but incorporates the basic concepts of Newtonian mechanics into most
theoretical frameworks.

However the holistic perspective has not been entirely absent in these
disciplines. A new way of thinking called "systems thinking" emerged during the
first few decades this century in some schools of biology, psychology and in ecology.

Organismic biology for example emphasises the view of
living organisms as integrated wholes whose properties cannot be reduced to those of the
smaller parts. Gestalt psychologists discovered that living organisms do not perceive
things in terms of isolated elements but but in terms of integrated perceptual patterns.
The famous saying 'the whole is more than the sum of its parts' was coined by
gestalt psychologists.

Ecologists who focussed on the study of animal
and plant communities observed networks of relationships - the web of life. They found a
new way of thinking - thinking in terms of relationships, connectedness, context.
According to Capra:

"We may call this ecological thinking, or systems thinking. It is based
on the fundamental shift of perception from the world as a machine to the world as a
living system. This shift concerns our perception of nature, of the human organism, and of
society.

Systems thinking involves shifting our attention from the parts to the whole,
from objects to relationships, from structures to processes, from hierarchies to networks.
It also includes shifts of emphasis from the rational to the intuitive, from analysis to
synthesis, from linear to nonlinear thinking."
(from Guide to Ecoliteracy, The Elmwood Institute)

Holism

Holism asserts that everything exists in relationship, in a context of
connection and meaning -- and that any change or event causes a realignment,
however slight, throughout the entire pattern. “The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts” means that the whole is comprised of a pattern of
relationships that are not contained by the parts but ultimately define them.
Holism,
stands in stark opposition to the method of reductionism, which holds that
analysis, dissection, and strict definition are the tools for understanding reality.
Holism asserts that phenomena can never be fully understood in
isolation; it asserts that reductionism can only give us a partial view of
anything it dissects.
Holism
is difficult to pin down precisely, because by its very nature it embraces
paradox, mystery, and contradiction.

The
Perennial Philosophy

Perennial
philosophy holds that all things are part of an indivisible unity or
whole. In brief, the basic principles of perennial philosophy can be
identified as follows:

There
is an interconnectedness of reality and a fundamental unity in the
universe.

There
is an intimate connection between the individual’s inner or higher self
and this unity.

In
order to see this unity we need to cultivate intuition through
contemplation and meditation.

Value
is derived from seeing and realising the interconnectedness of reality.

The
realisation of this unity among human beings leads to social activity
designed to counter injustice and human suffering.

These
principles have been articulated in different spiritual and intellectual
traditions in both the east and the West.
In the West the perennial philosophy can be traced to early Greek
times.
Source: Miller, Jack (1996) The Holistic Curriculum.
OISE Press: Ontario

What are your assumptions?

1.

(a) Thought is a product of brain activity.
(b) The universe is more like a thought than a thing.

2.

(a) The universe does not exist for any purpose.
(b) Purpose is found everywhere within the universe.

3.

(a) Most of the universe is dead.
(b) The universe is alive.

4.

(a) Reality can be perceived through the five senses.
(b) There is an extra-sensory reality.